1. Field
The present invention relates generally to communications systems, and more specifically, to systems and techniques for adaptively controlling the gain of one or more channels in a communications system.
2. Background
Modern communications systems are designed for multiple user access to a common communications medium. Numerous multiple-access techniques are known in the art, such as time division multiple-access (TDMA), frequency division multiple-access (FDMA), space division multiple-access, polarization division multiple-access, code division multiple-access (CDMA), and other similar multi-access techniques. The multiple-access concept is a channel allocation methodology which allows each user to access a common communications medium without interfering with others.
In multi-access communications systems, techniques to reduce mutual interference between multiple users are often utilized to increase user capacity. By way of example, power control techniques are currently employed to limit the transmission power of each user to that necessary to achieve a desired quality of service. This approach ensures that each user transmits only the minimum power necessary, but no higher, thereby making the smallest contribution to the total noise seen by others. However, as user demands for multi-access capability increases, techniques to further reduce the transmission power of each user without compromising the quality of service are needed.